Monthly Archives: June 2019

MGC’s nice thanks

Posted on June 4, 2019 | Comments Off on MGC’s nice thanks

The Board of Selectmen awarded the Medfield Garden Club $2500 towards its work maintaining garden sites around the town, such as the planters in front of the Town House, Meting House Pond, at the Medfield Memorial Library, and at numerous traffic islands.  Just imagine the cost to the town if Medfield instead maintained those sites via DPW employees, like Wellesley for one does.

For extra credit, what flower is depicted on the Medfield Garden Club logo below:

MGC

June 4, 2019

 

Dear Selectmen Marcucci, Murby and Peterson

 

On behalf of the Medfield Garden Club, we would like to thank you for your approval of our request for funding in the amount of $2500 for ongoing maintenance and renovation of our TASC civic beautification sites. Your heartfelt and public praise for our volunteer efforts and your financial support are important incentives for our thirty-three TASC volunteers in twenty-three community sites as we work to create a four-season garden welcome to all who come to Medfield.

 

Thank you so very much from all of us in the Medfield Garden Club.

 

Yours in bloom,

 

Michele Feinsilver Hoye

President, Medfield Garden Club

 

Carroll Noel-Mozer

Incoming President, Medfield Garden Club

 

Molly Sliney

Incoming President, Medfield Garden Club

 

Nancy Tella

TASC Chair, Medfield Garden Club

 

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Posted in Garden Club, Select Board matters

Fringe tree at MSH

Posted on June 3, 2019 | 5 comments

The unusual fringe tree, part of the arboretum of interesting trees at the former Medfield State Hospital site, is in full bloom now, and is worth a visit.

fringe tree-20190601

Former long time Town of Medfield Tree Warden, Ellis Allen, prepared and shared the tree map that appears below.  He did not note the fringe tree, so I added it.  When the fringe tree is not in bloom it is totally unremarkable.  There were two more much smaller fringe trees at the site, but they were cut down.  Ellis also did not include the interesting line of larch trees along the Charles River Link Trail path that he told me about.  That trail runs along the Charles from the Overlook to a hemlock grove high above the river.  That area just was not on Ellis’ map.  a row of many towering larchs line the path on the right just after crossing the brook.  Larchs look like evergreens, but are deciduous.

·~ s-Pecte-s o '1=-r-'RGz:-s A-r Mt:::JJ~f~ ~~. U.d5 .. Pc.T .• .P ..t L,. .. .. ' £ = Pfkfng lot I . . ,.. , .. '• ., ~ .,..h.., __ .. ,.. . r .t . ' __.._/ --- (._ __,. ... _______ ~~ :_TO ROUTE 27 ,_,·-0-S"r""P-IT-Ar. ROAr; ~ .. 'I ·.·· .• .. ·::: ·: ·~ • • • • ••• • • • 0 ' , •• ·-.•=·. .. • . . •.. • . . . . . ... ·•· ........ ~ .. : ,· .·. ,. I ~ ...· .; . :~;:~~· .·..· .·., (:~ "'·· f{)(')r.- I : SPECIES OF TREES AT MEDFIELD STATE HOSPITAL TREE# CO!vnviON NAME SCIENTIFIC NAME 1 American Beech Fagus grandifolia 2 American Elm Ulmus americana 3 Apple Malus spp. 4 Arbotyita" Thuja occidentalis s Black Cherry Prunus serrotina 6 Black Oak Quercus velutina 7 Canadian Hemlock Tsuga canadensis 8 Chinese Chestnut Castanea mollissima 9 Coloracto Blue Spruce Picea pungens glauca 10 Eum!L~ Beech . Fagus sylvatica 11 European PI etree Platanus occidentalis 12 Flowering Che Prunus spp. 13 Flowering Crabapp Malus spp. 14 Flowering Dogwood Comus florida 15 Fraiser Fir Abies fraseri 16 Goldenchain Tree Laburnum Vossi 17 Gray Birch Betula populifolia 18 Green Ash · Fraxinus pennsylvanica 19 Horsechestnut Aesculus hippocastinum 20 Japanese Maple Acer palmatum sp. 21 Japanese Tree Lila~ Syqnga reticulata 22 Little LeafLfuden Tilia cordauf · I 23 ~ocker.nutF.ficko~ Carya spp. 24 Moraine Locust Gleditsia tricanthos inennis 25 Mountain Ash Sorbus··americana 26 Northern Catalpa Catalpa speciosa . 27 Norway Maple Acer platanoides 28 Norway Spruce Picea abies 29 Paperbark Maple Acer griseum 30 Pin Oak Quercus palustris 31 Pitch Pine Pinus rigida 32 Red Cedar Juniperus virginiana 33 Red Oak Quercus rubrum 34 Red Pine Pinus resinosa 35 Sassafrass Sassafrass albidum 36 Saucer Magnolia Magnolia soulangiana 37 Scarlet Oak . -: Quercus coccinia - --- -- 38 S.iberian Elm Ulm~ paiVifol.ia 39 Sourwood Oxydendren arboreum 40 Sugar Maple Acer saccharum 41 Sweet gum Liquidamber styraciflua 42 Tuliptree ~. Liriodendren tulipfera 43 Tupelo Nyssa sylvatica 44 White. Ash Fraxinus americana 45 WhiteOak . Quercus alba· 46 White Pine Pinus strobus 47 Yellowwood Cladrastis I utea 48 White Fir Abies concolor 49 Red Maple Acerrubrum so White Birch Betula alba l)l F~~ee~~Tree map by Ellis Allen2 _Page_2

And here is what the canoe launch along that stretch of trail looked like when it was originally constructed.  Now the flat stones in the left photo are invisible in  the river under water and mud.

 

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Posted in Medfield State Hospital

Water & sewer rate increases

Posted on June 1, 2019 | Comments Off on Water & sewer rate increases

From Bill Harvey, Chair of Water & Sewer –

water

Medfield Water and Sewerage

Rate Setting Public Hearing

28 May 2019

 

Information Brief

 

Rates for water and sewerage services are set once a year.  The Board of Water and Sewerage, along with the DPW Director and the Water and Sewerage Enterprise Fund Committees have recommended the following increases:

Water +10% across all Tiers

Sewerage +4% across all Tiers

These rates will be effective April 1, 2019.

 

Background

  1. Water

It has been in the Master Plan to address elevated levels of natural-occurring manganese in two of our five wells.

The US EPA has not published a Maximum Contaminant Level (MCL), which are health-based limits, for manganese. The USEPA and the MA DEP do have a Secondary MCL (SMCL) concentration limits of 0.05 mg/l, which is for:

Aesthetic effects — undesirable tastes or odors;

Cosmetic effects — effects which do not damage the body but are still undesirable

Technical effects — damage to water equipment or reduced effectiveness of treatment for other contaminants

In the last few years, a consultant has completed a study on a treatment plant and alternatives.

One of the alternatives was to investigate all Medfield land parcels for an aquifer source of sufficient quantity and quality to avoid a treatment plant.  This investigation was conducted in 2017 and 2018.  Unfortunately, no other significant water sources were found. Also in 2018, we conducted a treatment pilot which compared different treatment options and designs, and this information will be used for designing a full-scale plant.

The Town is proceeding with detailed design and development of procurement documents for the treatment plant, which will include a re-development of one of its wells to increase the instantaneous pumping capacity.  This should relieve some of the pumping burden on our largest well, Well #6.

The capital investment for this project is currently estimated at $8 million.  We expect this project to be brought to the Annual Town Meeting in May 2021, and construction to begin in July 2021.

The 10% rate increase for this fiscal period will be followed by another rate increase the following year, projected to be another 10% to pay for the bond and additional operating costs.

 

  1. Sewerage

There are some increases in operating costs to operate our sewerage system.  The primary driver for this year’s increase is the addition of another full-time employee, which was mandated as per a Consent Order with the DEP for Medfield to increase of staff at the wastewater treatment plant.

 

 

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Posted in Water & Sewer